


grass roots

by orphan_account



Category: Adventure Time
Genre: Gen, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Sibling Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 04:58:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13357002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: family is supposed to always be there to pick you up when you fall down. so, maybe it's pretty nice to have a family.





	grass roots

**Author's Note:**

> canon wouldnt let them talk so i had to do it MYSELF . post-fern coming back from being the grass knight
> 
> if u read this as being romantic ill kill you

He didn’t really know how he knew Fern was there. Maybe there was some subconscious biz that made it so he knew which leaf sounds were from a leaf boy instead of just a regular non-sentient leaf, or like, some kind of twin-once-the-same-person mind connection or something. He wasn’t a therapist. Either way, when Finn climbed onto the roof, he knew that Fern was gonna be there. 

Fern talked first, almost unexpectedly. “Hey.” Fern was lying spread out on the roof. His eyes were wide open, so he hadn’t been trying to sleep, and he didn’t look at him. And he realized that Fern knew that Finn was gonna be there, too.

“Hey, man. Can I sit?”

“Yeah.”

He sat next to him, trying his very best not to make things awkward. Fern seemed pretty dedicated to staring unblinkingly up at the moon. It was kind of creepy, actually. Finn looked at him, even though Fern staunchly refused to look back at him, and tried his very best to think of all of those things that he’d wanted so, so badly to tell him when he was gone. Now that he was here, Finn couldn’t remember them anymore, and he was just a little dweeb who was making himself look really stupid on top of a tree.

Just sitting in complete silence with a bro for a minute or two never killed anybody. Like...probably. He tried to piece together all those things he’d wanted to say, and after a long while of trying and failing he found out that he was staring, unblinkingly, up at the moon. And he realized that Fern was trying to figure out what to say, too.

So Finn started first.

“It’s okay.”

He didn’t have to specify. Fern made a move like he was going to look at him, but decided better of it.

“No, it isn’t.”

“It wasn’t your fault--”

“Yeah, it was!”

“Okay, yeah, maybe some of it kinda was, but--it’s okay. You did some bad stuff, but you can move past it. I forgive you. Everyone does, or at least, anyone who hasn’t probably will.”

“You shouldn’t! Some things…” Fern gestured with his hand stuck all the way outwards, like he was trying to somehow convey what he was trying to say without saying it. “Some things shouldn’t be forgiven. Because, if you forgive it...it’s like it was alright, that I did that. Like you can forget it, and I can forget it, and it’s like, I could do it again, and then...and then you’d still forgive me. I’m afraid I would do it again. So...don’t.”

It was the most he’d said in a very long time, but Finn was so glad to hear Fern’s voice that it actually surprised him.

Finn hesitated before he talked again, trying to avoid the urge to think really hard about what he was saying--honesty. Fern would appreciate honesty. “I know what you mean.” He paused again, just for a bit this time. “I don’t think you can ever forget it, Fern. I think...that’s just one of those things you’re gonna carry with you forever. And you’re going to have to learn to live with that. But that’s okay. And...I won’t forget it either. But that doesn’t mean I don’t still care about you!”

The silence after that dragged on for so long that Finn nearly didn’t hear when Fern started talking again. “I wish you didn’t.” His voice cracked a little, and his face scrunched up like he was embarrassed of what he just sounded like. “I wish you were mad. I wish you hated me, and didn’t...let me sleep on your roof, and come up here and give me pep talks and say it’s okay like I didn’t try to kill you not too long ago. If you did all that to me, I’d hate you.”

“Fern? ...Why did you do it?”

“You know why.”

“Kind of, but not entirely.”

Fern was quiet again for a little while. “There were a ton of reasons, and all of them suck, but...I guess the reason that I went through with it was because there was nothing else to do.” Fern rubbed his hand back and forth on the tree underneath him as he talked. “People smile when you walk by, and they laugh when you tell jokes, and they depend on you, and even if they think you’re weird they like it, because it’s you. You always come out on top. A long time ago, I had that. I don’t anymore. I don’t have anything. You do.” He gestured out with his hands again, but with less effort this time. “I thought I only had one chance to be anything again. I just...wanted to be happy again. And I wanted to...have a chance to not dink it up this time.”

 

“Yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean.” Finn spoke up a lot more quickly this time, and it was because he understood what he was saying so deeply it made him feel a little weird. “Fern?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re not a bad person. Or grass-person or whatever. You’re just a dude with issues. And sometimes dudes with issues get in really bad places where they do really bad stuff. And that stuff was still really bad, but it doesn’t mean that they’re messed up forever. I know...you might feel kinda weird about me saying this, but...to me, you’re like my brother. And I’d never leave you behind. You can dink it up as many times as it takes and I’ll still pick you back up afterwards, even if I have to beat you up a little or something. We’ve both got some huge issues, man. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still be good dudes, and you aren’t just a random dude I found one day. You’re special. You’re Fern! And I know Fern’s a good guy. And he can keep being one.”

Fern let the silence stretch on for a while again, but he didn’t seem upset, so Finn just sat and waited. When he heard him again, he looked over and realized Fern was finally looking at him.

"Finn?" 

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.” It was the most sincere thanks he’d ever heard from him. Fern hesitated, like he had something else to say. “Thanks...for being there for me. Thanks for...for being my brother. Even though you didn't have to be."

Finn couldn’t hold himself back from smiling. “Forever, man.”

“Yeah.”


End file.
